Copies of the preliminary draft of the Constitution of the League of Nations were supplied the members, with an outline of the changes agreed upon by the drafting committee of the Peace Conference. The original draft presented February 14th, and the final draft adopted by the Peace Conference April 28, 1919, are published for comparison in the appendix to this number of the Transactions. (See page 147.)

In the preliminary business of the Club meeting the following action was taken:

In Memory of Henry Morse Stephens

Remarks by President Boynton

THE PRESIDENT: Yesterday in San Francisco a great heart ceased to beat, and the spirit of one of our honored members winged its flight to the unknown. Those of us who heard Professor Henry Morse Stephens express, a few months ago, his pleasure in becoming an American citizen will never forget the occasion. Only a few weeks ago he aroused us to a high pitch of enthusiasm in a most interesting and instructive luncheon address. He will meet with us no more. It is most appropriate that we should pause for a moment to honor the memory of such a man.

Remarks by Edward F. Adams

MR. ADAMS: Mr. President, we were all greatly shocked yesterday when we read of the sudden death of Henry Morse Stephens. As the President has mentioned, it was suggested in the Governors' meeting that it was appropriate that this Club should make some formal recognition, a statement of our appreciation of the life and of the work of the late Professor Stephens. We knew and know now that there are a dozen and probably a score of those present who could much more appropriately offer the resolution than myself, for I know of his public work only as other citizens know of it, and as I have listened from time to time with others to his inspiring addresses. It is true that for a good many years I have been associated very intimately with Professor Stephens in a small group in which I met only his social side, and personally I only know him as one of the most charming companions, filled with the most altruistic spirit and love of humanity and desire for helpfulness. Those are not his public services, and it is peculiarly his public services that an organization such as this may most appropriately recognize, and we regret and shall always regret that some of his academic associates are not here so that they could present these resolutions.

As most of us know, he came here some years ago and has been particularly associated with and represented in the public mind a scholarship which some of us old-fashioned people believe should be the great distinctive characteristic of a university, and it was his scholastic work and his charming personality which drew around him continually, as I am informed and believe, admiring students attracted by an earnestness that should be spoken of here but of which others better acquainted with his public work could more appropriately speak than I; and yet we all know that he has been among us, coming from another country, gradually becoming assimilated with more than

American altruism, and finally in his later years becoming one of us as an American citizen.

I, therefore, with these few words, which are entirely inadequate to express my feelings or the feelings of those more intimately associated with him in his work, move the adoption of the following resolution, Mr. President:

Resolved, That in the death of Professor Henry Morse Stephens, for a long time an active and useful member of this Club, the Commonwealth Club recognizes that this community and the state at large has sustained the loss of one of its most useful citizens. While Professor Stephens left no immediate family which might be comforted by an expression of our sympathy, we nevertheless deem it appropriate that we should place upon our records this statement of our appreciation of the services of Professor Stephens to this Club, to our State University, to the community about San Francisco Bay, and to the State of California.

I move the adoption of the resolution.

Remarks by C. M. Belshaw

MR. BELSHAW: As a Past Grand President of the Native Sons of the Golden West, I arise to second this resolution.

Professor Henry Morse Stephens, as you know, was Sather professor of history at the University of California, and for many years the Native Sons of the Golden West have by per capita assessment, levied upon every member of the association, subscribed to the University of California $3,000 a year for research in California history. There was no man in the State of California that more appreciated the efforts of the Native Sons of the Golden West in research work in California history than Professor Henry Morse Stephens, and there was no man in the whole faculty of the University of California that was more universally esteemed and loved by the members of the Native Sons of the Golden West than Henry Morse Stephens. At every Grand Parlor, for the last several years, Henry Morse Stephens honored us with his presence and made a report as to the work that was being done. And I second the resolution which has been offered by Mr. Adams.

THE PRESIDENT: All those who favor the adoption of the resolution will stand. The resolution has been adopted unanimously, Mr. Secretary.

Meeting of April 17, 1919

The Club met at the Hotel St. Francis on Thursday, April 17, 1919. Following the recess that closed the business meeting, the Club was called to order by President Albert E. Boynton as follows:

Remarks by President Boynton

THE PRESIDENT: The subject for discussion this evening is the allimportant topic which is now interesting the civilized world-the League of Nations.

The section on International Relations, headed by Professor Edgar E. Robinson of Stanford, has done some very fine work during the last six months. A statement has been prepared by Professor Robinson, which will save the speakers the necessity of explanation. We will hear from Professor Robinson.

Statement for Section on International Relations

BY PROFESSOR EDGAR E. ROBINSON, Chairman of Section MR. ROBINSON: In preparing a statement to precede the debate of the evening, I was reminded of a story that was told of Gladstone on one of his visits to Liverpool. He was to speak at an evening meeting, and was greatly delayed. The audience had gathered in a hall. The hall was packed. No windows had been opened. As time passed it became very necessary to open some windows, but so tightly packed were the people that it was impossible to open the windows at the bottom and consequently it was decided by those in charge that the windows must be broken in at the top and from the outside. Fearing a panic, it was decided that first of all the Mayor must come forward and make an announcement. The crowd sighting the Mayor and fearing a speech to fill up time, greeted him with shouts of great disapproval. They continued to shout their disapproval, so that he could not be heard. Finally he shouted above the din, "I am not going to make a speech. I have something to say." (Laughter.)

It is not my intention tonight to delay the proceedings unduly by making a speech; but it did seem that a preliminary statement might perhaps clear up the air a bit before we commenced the debate proper.

Everywhere in the United States men and women are discussing the proposal that this nation become a member of a League of Nations. This has been brought about by the presentation to the inter-allied peace conference at Paris of a preliminary draft of a proposed constitution of a league. This was a little more than two months ago. The word

"covenant" and the word "mandatory" have come into general circulation; in fact, the newspaper paragraphers refer to the League of Nations as the "League of Notions"-a sure sign of general public interest. But after a few generalizations and platitudes most people admit, if they are honest, that they do not know very much about the league constitution. Many have not read the constitution; moreover, a hasty reading of the constitution is very misleading. Within the last few weeks there has developed the attitude, that inasmuch as the constitution is going to be changed anyway, it need not be studied.

Now, an indefinite, vague notion of what was the original constitution is not a particularly good basis for constructive criticism. It may be helpful, first of all, then, tonight, to state how this constitution came into existence at the time it did, to enumerate certain outstanding characteristics, to indicate the attempts to amend it, and then to state, as far as we know them, what the amendments are to be. After all the document as originally proposed is the basis for this discussion.

As to the process of creation: With the entrance of the United States into the great war, and, indeed, for some months before that, there was much discussion of a league of nations as a possible outcome of that war. The nature of President Wilson's diplomacy of war kept the project in the foreground throughout the period of America's part in the war. There was no great surprise, then, when on January 25th of the present year at the second plenary session of the inter-allied peace conference, the following resolution was adopted unanimously. This was in the full conference. I want to read it, this first resolution: "It is essential to the maintenance of the world settlement which the associated nations are now met to establish, that a league of nations be created to promote international obligations and to provide safeguards against war. This league should be created as an integral part of the general treaty of peace, and should be open to every civilized nation which can be relied on to promote its objects."

That is, as far as I know, the only resolution of the whole peace conference thus far passed with reference to a league of nations. The vote was unanimous.

Under the instruction of the full conference a committee was appointed to work out the details of the constitution. Representatives of fourteen states sat in this committee. I think they need not be listed, at least for the present.* Without question Wilson, Cecil, Smuts and Bourgeois have been the leading members of that commission, as the committee has generally been called.

*United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, China, Serbia, Portugal, Czecho-Slovakia, Greece, Poland, Rumania.

On February 14th, three weeks after the committee was appointed, President Wilson presented the report of that committee to the general conference. This report embodied the constitution which has since that day, the 14th day of February, been under debate in the committee, in the conferences and in the various countries, particularly in the United States.

The salient points in the document may be briefly summarized as follows:

First, the purpose of the league is to promote co-operation, to secure peace, and to establish security.

Second, the league is composed of (a) signatories to the covenant; (b) states named in the protocol as states to be admitted; (c) others, fully self-governing, with the assent of not less than two-thirds of the states in the league, and who meet certain conditions set down in the constitution.

Third, the governing bodies of this proposed league are to be a body of delegates, an executive council and a secretariat. Commissions and courts are to be supplied later.

Fourth, the high contracting parties enter into agreement to do and not to do certain things. "They renounce the right to judge their own issues of war, agree to submit them to examination, agree not to go to war until they are examined, and agree to put some constraint upon those who break this covenant."

Fifth, the league is to provide a means of caring for government in backward areas.

These are the outstanding characteristics-speaking of the document as a constitution-are the outstanding characteristics of the original document. But the question of the strength of the proposed constitution brings up at once the question of the power residing in the government of the league.

I

In presenting the document to the conference President Wilson said: "It is not a vehicle of power, but a vehicle in which power may be varied at the discretion of those who exercise it, and in accordance with the changing circumstances of the times." would particularly emphasize this statement of the man most responsible for bringing this document to us at this particular time. If power is to be varied, if it is intended that power shall be varied, it will be well to know, first, the extent of the field of that power, and, second, who it is intended shall wield that power. That is, the covenants that bind the nations, and the provisions for investigation and arbitration are of relatively less importance.